


it feels like stealing hearts

by botanical_beans



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Human, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/F, catradora, childhood trauma but not THAT bad, enemies to lovers but in a hot nonviolent way, glimbow but background
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-03
Updated: 2020-07-12
Packaged: 2021-03-04 23:41:40
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,663
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25054843
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/botanical_beans/pseuds/botanical_beans
Summary: Catra is forced to make nice with her roommate's girlfriend's friends and things don't go exactly as planned.AKA Catra comes face-to-face with Adora's perfect arms, face, and personality and can't deal.
Relationships: Adora & Bow & Glimmer (She-Ra), Adora & Catra (She-Ra), Adora/Catra (She-Ra), Bow/Glimmer (She-Ra), Mermista/Sea Hawk (She-Ra), Perfuma/Scorpia (She-Ra)
Comments: 35
Kudos: 288





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Catradora has stolen my heart, mind, body, and all my spare time! Introducing: the first fanfic I have attempted since an ill-begotten Pirates of the Caribbean/Harry Potter crossover fic I wrote when I was 11.

“Catra, please? Please come?” Scorpia begged. She was standing in front of Catra, somehow almost at eye-level despite Catra being laid out on her lofted bed in their shared dorm room. 

“Scorpia, for the last time, team sports really aren’t  — ” 

“Come on, Catra, this thing with Perfuma is still so new… and now I’m meeting her friends… I just really need my wingwoman with me!” Scorpia’s lower lip jutted out and her eyes took on a gleamy-puppy dog look. She looked near tears, and under that, genuinely panicked. 

Catra rolled her eyes so hard it was almost audible, but she felt a twinge of guilt. Scorpia was a  _ good  _ friend. If their positions were reversed, she would happily be Catra’s wingwoman, no begging or bribing required. When they had met, as random roommates during their freshman year at University of Eternia, Catra had worked hard to remain cold and aloof. She intentionally avoided small talk (which inevitably led to deeper questions) and she used their room exclusively to sleep, change, and – when the itch needed scratching – to bring back random hook-ups. 

Scorpia, a generally effusive and far-too-kind-hearted person, refused to be deterred. She had conducted largely one-sided conversations to check in with Catra about her day, her work, her classes, had left cupcakes and other baked goods on Catra’s desk during midterms and finals, and memorably, when Catra caught the freshman flu, Scorpia had made her soup and taken her temperature, brought her medicine and ice, and nursed Catra back to health without being asked to or looking for thanks. Anyone who could deal with a grumpy flu-y Catra deserved a chance, and begrudgingly, Catra had started to let Scorpia in. Now, though Catra refused to use the words, Scorpia was by far her closest and best friend. And best friends must make sacrifices… 

Catra sighed deeply. “How long do you think the game’ll go again? I have band practice tonight.”

Scorpia beamed and pumped a fist into the air. “Wahoo! Thank you so much for coming, buddy, it’s gonna be so much fun! Perfuma is so awesome, you’re gonna love her, and I bet her friends are super nice too. We’ll be back with plenty of time before your practice tonight. You’re on the red team so just put on a red shirt and we’ll head over!” 

Catra nodded, barely resisting the urge to roll her eyes again. Scorpia had been mooning over Perfuma for months, and in the few weeks that they’d been dating, she’d been almost effervescent with joy. It would be cute, if Catra was the type to find couple-y shit like that cute. Perfuma had invited Scorpia to join her friends in a pick-up game of basketball; strictly non-competitive, meant for them all to be able to get to know each other. Scorpia, still in the stages of wanting desperately to impress her new girl, had asked Catra to come along as her wingwoman and “to show that she, Scorpia, has super cool friends too!” Catra climbed down from her lofted bed and rooted around until she found a red cropped tank top to wear. “Ready, I guess,” she sighed dramatically, stuffing her beat-up leather backpack with a water-bottle and her other necessities. 

Scorpia was even less phased by Catra’s dramatics than usual; she drifted out towards the door, a dreamy smile splashed across her face. She chatted amiably, if one-sidedly, on the walk over, mostly about Perfuma and how wonderful she was and how much Catra would like her. Catra had seen Perfuma in passing on campus  — she was hard to miss, what with the crunchy flower-queen look and the heaps of white-blonde hair  — but her boss kept scheduling her for more and more shifts, and as a result she had missed meeting Perfuma the times that Scorpia had brought her to their shared dorm. 

As they approached the basketball court, Catra took stock of the group gathered there. Perfuma of course, inexplicably dressed to play basketball in her signature pink maxi dress and grinning as she waved them over. A short, curvy girl with cropped pink hair chatting animatedly with some guy in a crop top, a pouty looking girl with long dark hair pointedly ignoring a guy with a stupid looking mustache, and a tall blonde jock-looking girl wearing, of all things, a cropped blue hoodie and high-cut gym shorts that looked like they’d been pulled straight from the ‘80s. Looking at the group’s shiny joy and easy camaraderie, Catra felt a wave of instant annoyance.

As they approached the group, Perfuma hurried up and pulled Scorpia in for a lingering hug. Her hands drifted over Scorpia’s arms as she pulled away and beamed up at her. “Oh Scorpia, Catra, I’m so glad you made it!” Perfuma turned to Catra and pulled her in for a tight hug as well; Catra tensed up but made an effort to stay still until Perfuma released her. “Let me introduce you to the group!” 

“This is Glimmer,” the pink haired girl gave a cautious wave, “And Bow,” the smiley boy with the yellow crop top, “And Adora,” the jock girl with the 80s short-shorts gave Catra a once over before smiling broadly, “and then Mermista and Seahawk!”

At the sound of their names paired together, Mermista burst out: “Ugh, who even invited him?” she gestured wildly in the direction of Seahawk, he of the stupid looking mustache. She looked a second away from literally stomping her feet in annoyance. 

Glimmer elbowed her, “‘Mista, come on, you know we need even numbers to play and since Scorpia brought a  _ friend _ we needed one more…” 

“Ugh, FINE, but we better not be playing on the same team!” Mermista glowered. 

“No problem!” Perfuma smiled, “Bow, Glimmer, you set up teams for this week, right?” 

Bow beamed, “Right! So, we put me, Perfuma, Mermista, and Catra on the red team, and Glimmer, Adora, Scorpia, and Seahawk on the blue team. We brought some pinneys in case anyone forgot to wear their team color too!” he looked around, smiling sunnily “Aaand I see everyone got the memo! Great! Since there are eight of us, we’ll play full court, and we’ll start by playing to ten and then see how everyone’s feeling.” 

“We brought snacks in case anyone gets hungry!” Glimmer chimed in, pointing to an overflowing picnic basket to the side of the court, sitting on an actual red checked picnic blanket. “Sparkling lemonade too!” Bow added.  _ Barf,  _ thought Catra, grimacing at the sickly wholesomeness of it. 

“Let’s do this!” the blonde jock, Adora, pumped her fist up and yelled, “Team huddle!” Catra rolled her eyes, grateful to be on the opposing team, and made her way over to her own teammates.

Her gratitude didn’t last long. To put it simply, Adora was  _ infuriating  _ on the court. 

She took any and every chance to steal the ball. She cheered her teammates on like a pent-up soccer mom with no other outlets, and smack talked aggressively whenever the red team got the ball. She took dramatic shots from half-court and worse, she  _ made _ some of them. The blue team was up 5-0 when Catra decided enough was enough. She was no pro basketball player, but she was in decent shape and had a mean competitive streak. No way in hell was this insufferable jock going to get away with  _ this  _ level of showy obnoxiousness. All thoughts of playing nice for Scorpia’s new girlfriend flew out of her head. Catra fought back  — she elbowed Adora in the ribs as she dribbled by her, causing her to grunt and drop the ball  — Catra stole it and passed it to Bow, who handily sunk it into the basket. The red team whooped obnoxiously and Catra smirked at Adora, who was clutching her side and looking disbelievingly at Catra. Catching Catra’s look, Adora’s eyes narrowed.  _ Bring it on.  _

The ball returned to the blue team. Scorpia got it and passed it quickly to Glimmer, who dribbled it for a second before shooting it over to Adora, who all but steamrolled it down the court. At the last minute Catra got in Adora’s face and  _ accidentally _ stomped on her foot. Adora cursed loudly and dropped the ball, which Catra stole and threw to a waiting Mermista, who made another shot for the red team. Adora was out and out glaring at Catra now, mouth agape. Catra ignored her and sashayed back to the half-court line, suddenly having a much better time. The ball reset and Adora grabbed it and immediately lobbed a shot from half-court to the basket. When she missed, Catra out and out cackled. 

Adora wheeled around. “What is your  _ problem? _ ” she fumed.

“ _ My  _ problem?” Catra hissed, “What’s  _ your  _ problem? Who plays  _ pick up basketball  _ like this?” 

They glared at each other. 

Bow broke in. “Hey, whoa, okay! Let’s take a water break.”

“Yeah, fine,” said Adora, still glaring over at Catra, who rolled her eyes. 

The group broke up to get their water bottles; Mermista and Seahawk dropped down to the grass a few feet away from the picnic blanket, Seahawk producing a paper fan from seemingly nowhere with which to fan Mermista. Bow and Glimmer went off to the side and whispered frantically, Glimmer gesturing wildly towards Catra and Adora. Scorpia offered Perfuma her arm and escorted her over the picnic blanket, where they settled in and cracked open the bottle of sparkling lemonade. Adora stomped away from the court and dribbled water over her forehead before chugging the whole bottle and crushing it. Catra sipped water and checked her phone and calculated how much g00d-friend-time she owed Scorpia before she was allowed to peace out of the stupid game. 

After a few minutes, Bow beamed nervously and said: “Ookay, so just for fun, we’re gonna switch the teams up! It’s gonna be Perfuma, Scorpia, Adora, and Catra on the red team, and me, Glimmer, Mermista and Seahawk on the blue team! Pinneys for anyone who needs to switch colors!” 

While Scorpia and Mermista grabbed pinneys, Adora rolled her eyes and unzipped her blue hoodie, revealing a red sports bra. For some reason the sight of her sweaty, ridiculously toned arms and abs infuriated Catra.  _ Show off,  _ she fumed, eyes all but rolling out of her head. 

This time, they skipped the team huddle and jumped right back into playing. Despite the obvious maneuverings of Glimmer and Bow, things did not go more smoothly between Catra and Adora. Anytime Catra had the ball, Adora got all up in her face demanding she pass. In revenge, Catra full-on ignored Adora and only passed to Scorpia and Perfuma, even when Perfuma was being handily guarded by Bow and was actively shouting for Catra to pass to Adora. 

Adora wheeled on Catra again, pointing a finger right in her face. “I was  _ open,  _ what are you  _ doing?! _ ” she demanded. 

“So sorry,” Catra said snidely, “Didn’t see you there. Next time maybe you should signal or something.” 

“Ugh, did I  _ do  _ something to you? Why are you  _ like this! _ ” 

“Why am  _ I  _ like this?! What’s wrong with  _ you?! _ ” Catra pushed harshly at Adora’s chest, near growling as she tried to force her out of her space. Adora leaned in harder and glowered even more aggressively, opening her mouth as if to say more, when Catra pushed her again and stomped off. She grabbed her backpack, waved tersely at Scorpia, and high-tailed it out of there.  _ Dumb buff jock. _

Catra fumed as she stomped her way back to her dorm to change. Band practice would surely provide a welcome release from the frustrations of that dumb-as-shit “ _ casual _ ” game. How on earth could Adora get away with being such an obnoxious, show off-y, muscle-y, buff, attractive  — whoa. Where had that last thought come from? Catra shook her head violently to clear it of such treacherous thoughts, but she couldn’t help but picture Adora’s cut arms and chiseled stomach muscles. She grumbled aloud to herself. Who the hell had time to work out to  _ that  _ extent in college? Something was obviously wrong with that chick and Catra sincerely hoped she wouldn’t be around her enough to find out what.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! In conclusion, She-Ra and Catradora really did it to me. I’ve never played a sport in my LIFE so I don’t know one bit about basketball. Sorry! Everything I know about this sport is from High School Musical, no joke. I have about 3 chapters outlined so far and hopefully it’ll be much longer than that! I’d love to know what you all think!! :D :D <33


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you everyone for all the comments/kudos! trying to reply to them ASAP but they feel so good to read so tysm for taking that time 🥺🥺

Catra spent the next few weeks in a swirl of homework and work-work. Her boss — generally a piece of shit who never seemed to have his employees’ best interests in mind — had lost another few baristas and a kitchen worker at the beginning of the semester due to his heavy-handed (read: abusive) management tactics, and as a result, the remaining staff were working double their usual number of shifts. On top of that, midterms were fast approaching and Catra had managed, yet again, to fall behind on her assignments. 

Suffice to say, Catra was exhausted by the time the weekend rolled around. Somehow she had both Saturday and Sunday off, a bit of luck she prayed her boss wouldn’t catch and correct. While she wiped down the back counters and re-stocked beans, tea bags, and various syrups (lavender was out again, as was, astonishingly, the candy apple flavor they’d put out for fall), Catra plotted her ideal weekend schedule — homework worked in around band practice and some much-needed sleep. The cafe she worked at, The Daily Grind, was slightly farther from campus than some other coffee shops, and as a result tended to get more local traffic. Saved Catra from having to serve poorly-tipping college students all the time. The cafe had emptied out since the morning rush; weekends tended to be their busiest times, and Friday afternoons were usually pretty quiet. Catra looked up at the sound of the door chime and groaned internally. Perfuma’s friends Glitter and Joe were making their way to the counter, in the midst of what sounded like a spirited debate over breakfast pastries.

“You really shouldn’t underestimate the power of a plain croissant,” Joe argued.

“For the last time, you’re forgetting—” 

At the sight of Catra, Glitter stopped short. Joe knocked into her and craned around to see what she was looking at. His eyes widened slightly before he broke into a huge grin.

“Catra! We didn’t know you worked here!” he said happily. 

Catra grunted in response. 

“Wow, how long have you been working here? We usually get coffee on-campus but Scorpia told us how great this place is — which makes sense now that we know you work here!” He chattered happily, somehow still smiling. 

Glitter looked on grumpily. Catra sighed and resigned herself to the conversation. 

“Right, yeah, Scorpia does stop by sometimes. I’ve been here the past few semesters or so. It’s, uh, Joe, right? And Glitter?” 

Glitter glared. “It’s  _ Glimmer. _ And  _ Bow.”  _

Catra suppressed a smirk. Ol’ Sparkles was easily riled (also, what _ridiculous_ names). This could be fun. 

Bow smiled. “Yeah, it’s Bow! It can be hard to remember so many names when you meet a bunch of people at once. Speaking of which! Basketball was so fun! Thanks so much for playing with us, I know some of us can be, ah,” his smile faltered as he finished, “a little intense.” 

This time Catra did smirk. “Right, yeah, just a little.” 

Bow smiled bigger. “You know what? We’re actually all getting together again this weekend! Game night! You should  _ totally  _ join. Scorpia is coming too.” 

Catra thought distastefully of being around that dumb, buff girl again. 

Bow must’ve seen the look in her eyes because he wheedled, “Glimmer and I are hosting, and we’re planning an  _ amazing  _ spread. All the classic game night foods! Bacon mac ‘n cheese, cupcakes, a cheese platter, homemade cheese puffs… Tiny versions of all of our favorite foods, basically!” He elbowed Glimmer, “Shouldn’t Catra  _ totally  _ come to Game Night, Glim?” 

Glimmer looked peeved. “Bow, I’m sure Catra already has plans for this weekend, we don’t need to pressure her to come.”

At this, Catra smirked broadly. Oh, the joys of annoying someone so easily ticked off. “What games you playing?” she asked. 

Bow grinned. “We’ve got an assortment! Pandemic, Catan, charades, Uno… all the classics!” 

Catra continued to smirk, staring straight at Glimmer when she said, “Settlers of Catan is my  _ favorite. _ I’ll think about it.” 

She had no plans to attend a game night with Perfuma’s obnoxious friends, obviously, but the look on Sparkle’s face when she said she’d come was  _ priceless. _

Bow continued to chatter happily about game nights past as Catra fulfilled their drink orders. Thankfully they took their lattes to go, though Catra saw them settle in at one of the tables outside of the cafe. She glanced up at the clock, relieved when she saw that she was in the final hour of her shift. She continued her wipe down of the now-spotless counters and glass display cases, feeling increasingly restless. Once she felt satisfied with the general cleanliness of the cafe, Catra hopped up on the L-shaped counter, pulling out her phone to scroll mindlessly through her social media. 

In the corner of her eye, a flash of brightness through the windows caught Catra’s attention. Her head snapped to the side with a growl when she realized that  _ Adora  _ and her dumb yellow hair had arrived to join her friends. Bow was gesturing animatedly between his latte and the cafe, pointing back at Catra happily. Adora’s eyes drifted up to her. Despite the distance between Catra’s perch on the counter and the friend group on the cafe porch, Catra could see Adora’s eyebrows visibly furrowed with annoyance. The girl was literally glaring at her through the window.  _ Dumbass jock,  _ Catra thought to herself, rolling her eyes and waggling her fingers hello in a way that she meant to be sarcastic but that ended up feeling rather flirtatious. Adora’s eyes widened and she looked away quickly.  _ Oops,  _ thought Catra. She felt annoyed, or something, at the idea of Adora coming in and having to interact with her, but luckily Glimmer and Bow were standing and all three of them seemed to be heading out. Bow waved at Catra through the window, very obviously mouthing “Game night tomorrow!” and gesturing widely between Catra and the group. Catra suppressed another eye roll and gave Bow a thumbs up and a pained smile, which seemed to appease him. 

*****

The rest of Catra’s shift passed with no additional customers. She hustled out quickly once her relief — a pin-thin, butter-fingered freshman boy named Kyle — came to take over. 

Catra hauled her bag over her shoulder, cracked her neck, and began to trudge back to her dorm room. She considered stopping by the dining hall for a to-go box, but nixed the idea in favor of her recently replenished ramen stash. As she unlocked the door to hers and Scorpia’s room, she heard unfamiliar giggling. Scorpia and Perfuma were cuddled up on Scorpia’s bed, bodies side-by-side and feet intertwined as they watched something on Scorpia’s laptop.  _ Sickening. _ At the sound of her entrance, Scorpia twisted around and broke out into a huge grin. 

“Catra! I was hoping you’d be home tonight!”

“Hey Scorpia, hey Perfuma,” Catra mustered a tired smile and dropped her bag at her desk. “Should I…?” she gestured at the door.

“No! No, not at all,” Scorpia cried, “This is great! You and Perfuma can finally start getting to know each other!” 

Perfuma beamed. “How have you been, Catra? Thanks so much again for joining us for basketball the other day! It was super fun having you!”

Catra grimaced slightly. What was with this friend group and ignoring the literal  _ fight  _ Catra had had with one of their friends, randomly and unnecessarily, upon meeting her for the first time? 

“Uh, yeah, it was just  _ super,”  _ and before she could stop herself, “Sorry for, uh, what happened with Adora. Not sure what got into me.” (Yes, she was.  _ Adora  _ had gotten into her.)

Perfuma waved her hand airily. “Oh, not a problem, Catra! I’ve always known Adora to be on the competitive side. It’s that student athlete personality coming out I suppose,” she giggled. “Anyway, I’m just so happy we can finally have a chance to get to know each other! Scorpia and I were just watching  _ You’ve Got Mail.  _ I can’t believe I hadn’t seen it before! Meg Ryan is so  _ cute!” _

Scorpia beamed at her so lovingly that Catra had to look away. “Meg Ryan is my favorite! You’re a woman of taste, Perfuma!” She looked over at Catra, still beaming, “Catra! You should join us. We were just about to take a break and make some tea and popcorn. Have you eaten yet?”

Catra grabbed a ramen packet from the box on her desk and shook it in Scorpia’s direction. “Was just gonna make this.”

“Great! We’ll wait for you to be done and then you can join us,” Perfuma smiled, leaving Catra no way out of becoming their third wheel. 

Whatever. They seemed pretty into having her there, so… might as well steal some popcorn and some of Scorpia’s fancy tea and zone out for a bit. 

Hanging out with Perfuma and Scorpia ended up being pretty fun, couple-y moments aside. Scorpia made two huge bowls of popcorn with all the fixings and Catra managed to hoard one to herself -- selfishly, mostly, but also to give her roommate the opportunity to make as much hands-bumping-in-the-popcorn-bowl contact as she wanted, which turned out to be a lot. There was also a lot of blushing and lingering eye contact between Scorpia and her date, but Catra pretty easily tuned it out in favor of Meg Ryan. 

“Ugh, I  _ love  _ an enemies-to-lovers plot!” Scorpia sighed at the end of the movie. 

“So romantic!” Perfuma agreed. 

Catra grunted. A bit overdone, in her opinion, but  _ You’ve Got Mail _ redeemed itself in other ways. 

“I guess I’ll be heading out soon, then,” Perfuma continued. “It’s getting a little late and I want to be up early to catch the sunrise tomorrow on the lake!”

Scorpia looked at her with hearts in her eyes. “Ooh! That sounds beautiful!”

“Would you like to join me?” Perfuma asked excitedly.

“Yes! Absolutely yes!” They beamed at each other.

“Oh! Catra, would you like to come too?” asked Perfuma.

“Eh, I’m not really a morning person.” Catra said, grimacing at the thought of waking up early just to third-wheel a freakin’  _ sunrise. _

“Oh, okay,” Perfuma sounded a bit disappointed. “Well, in that case, you should  _ definitely  _ join us tomorrow for game night! Bow and Glimmer are hosting it at their place, which means the snacks will be  _ extra  _ tasty.”

Catra’s grimace deepened. “Yeah, they actually, uh, stopped by the cafe today and invited me,” at this, she leveled a glare at Scorpia, who had been indirectly responsible for the interaction. “I’m not sure it’s a great idea, to be honest, considering what happened last time…” she trailed off. 

“Oh, but Adora won’t even be there this time! She has a team dinner tomorrow night.” Perfuma exclaimed, clearly understanding the root of Catra’s hesitation.

Catra considered. Hanging out with Scorpia and Perfuma had been genuinely fun… and it wasn’t like she had plans for Saturday night this week anyway, besides sleep. Something PG-rated could be a nice change of pace. She nodded slowly, and Perfuma shrieked in excitement.

“Eep! Great! It’s gonna be so much fun having you both there!” She popped up off the bed and began gathering her things. “Catra, this was so fun, thanks for hanging out with us tonight! Scorpia, walk me out?” 

Scorpia scrambled off the bed immediately, nearly tripping over herself in the process. “Of course, of course! I’ll walk you home, let me just grab a jacket.” 

They headed out and Catra flopped back on her bed, exhausted by her day and wondering at the hint of disappointment she felt at the idea that Adora wouldn’t be at game night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you for reading!! i had to cut myself off from adding in the game night part -- it's half-written at this point so hopefully another update soon! and yeah, lmk what you think again! <333


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you again for all the comments and kudos!! i hope you enjoy the next chapter!

The next night, Scorpia and Catra showed up to Glimmer and Bow’s off campus house at 7:00pm on the dot. Scorpia had rushed Catra through her getting-ready process, insisting that lateness would serve as a strike against her as Perfuma’s new paramour. She had also made Catra work through several cue cards of conversation topics beforehand, so Scorpia could feel adequately prepared for any which way the conversation might go. Catra had no idea why Scorpia was so nervous  — things seemed to be going well,  _ very  _ well, with Perfuma so far, and Scorpia was such a kind-hearted person that she generally had no trouble making friends. Regardless, they had been standing on the stoop of Glimmer and Bow’s place for at least 4 minutes now, Scorpia sweating and muttering nervously. 

“Uh, Scorpia. Let’s just go in?” 

Scorpia continued to mutter to herself. Catra rolled her eyes, but sympathetically, and rang the bell. The door whooshed open almost immediately, and Bow greeted them with a grin and wrapped his arms around them both  — not an easy feat, with Scorpia’s musculature  — in an enthusiastic hug. 

“Guys! You made it! Come in, come in, grab some snacks! We’re still waiting on Mermista and Sea Hawk to start the games.”

Inside, Glimmer and Perfuma were chatting together over plates of mini-tacos and mac ‘n cheese bites. Scorpia waved enthusiastically as she struggled to remove her loafers (Glimmer and Bow had a “No Shoes! :)” sign prominently on display). Catra slipped off her motorcycle boots and looked for a place to stash her leather jacket. Bow saw her struggling and pointed towards a door across the room. 

“We’re using Adora’s room for jackets since it’s the only one downstairs. It’s right in there!” 

_ Adora’s room.  _ Of course. Of course the golden trio lived together in a cutesy little off-campus house. Catra shook off a wave of revulsion mixed with curiosity as she walked into  _ Adora’s _ room. It was messy in a way where it was clear things had been quickly stashed away in drawers and in the overflowing closet, likely in preparation for company. She wondered if Bow or Glimmer or Adora herself was responsible for that. Catra dropped her jacket and bag on the bed and then slowly walked the perimeter of Adora’s bedroom. She lingered at the dresser, where Adora had displayed numerous photos of her friends and what seemed to be her family, though there wasn’t much resemblance. A flash of bright red caught her attention, and her eyes dropped down to the cracked-open top drawer. Red  _ lace.  _ The image of Adora’s toned body wearing something red and lacy flashed unbidden in Catra’s mind. Face hot, she quickly turned away and left the room, closing the door soundly behind her. 

Mermista and Sea Hawk had arrived. Mermista was in the middle of saying, “We didn’t, like, come together.” She rolled her eyes at Bow, who had clearly implied just that. “He’s just my ride, okay?”

“And her plus one!” Sea Hawk stage whispered excitedly. 

Bow rolled his eyes good naturedly and pointed them both towards Adora’s room as well. Catra stepped quickly out of the way and went to load up a plate. She was just digging in, perched on a corner of the couch across from Glimmer, Perfuma, and Scorpia, when the front door burst open again. 

“Did I make it in time?!” a familiar blonde voice cried behind her.  _ Fuck.  _

“Adora!” Glimmer exclaimed, “We didn’t think you could make it! What happened to the team dinner?”

Catra continued to pick at her plate, studiously refusing to look behind her at the cause of the commotion. 

“Ugh,” Catra could almost hear the eye-roll in her voice, “Coach made us do sprints right before we ate. Like,  _ four  _ girls threw up. So, yuh, we ended early.”

Glimmer wrinkled her nose. “Oh,  _ gross.  _ Did you…?”

“Nah,” Adora said, sounding proud, “Of course not! You know me, stomach of steel. Speaking of, did I miss the mac ‘n cheese bites?” 

She hurried past Catra and towards the kitchen. Catra released a breath.  _ Great.  _ So much for her chill, easy, PG-evening. 

Adora reappeared in the doorway between the kitchen and the living room, plate laden with food. She had clearly showered after the disastrous team dinner; her damp blonde hair hung down to her shoulders and Catra could smell the fruity scent of her shampoo. She had a fork in one hand and was focusing intently on her plate, all but shoveling mac ‘n cheese bites into her mouth. Catra scowled. She had just finished all of hers and it didn’t appear that Adora had left any for anyone else.  _ Selfish jerk.  _ Adora finally glanced up and Catra watched as her eyes widened comically at the sight of Catra. 

“You!” she spluttered, though through a mouth full of food it sounded more like “fyough!” Catra smirked and, just for fun, waved flirtatiously at her. 

“Hey, Adora,” she drawled. 

Adora reddened. Catra watched her throat bulge as she gulped down a huge lump of food. She glared at Catra, then over at Glimmer and Bow, clearly betrayed. The trio had a moment of non-verbal communication, in which Catra could clearly tell Adora was asking why Catra was there, Glimmer was agreeing with her, and Bow was pleading with both of them to  _ try  _ to get along. Catra smirked to herself. Maybe this evening wasn’t a lost cause after all.

*****

After everyone had eaten their fill and a few snack bowls had been stationed around the room, it was time to play.

Perfuma held up a beat-up duffel bag. “Bow, Glimmer, as our  _ illustrious  _ hosts, would you like to do the honors of selecting the first game?”

Glimmer clapped her hands together, “Ooh, yes! Hm, what do you say Bow?”

“Let’s pick something low-key to start us off! Low-competition, heh heh,” He chuckled awkwardly, rubbing his neck and avoiding eye contact with Adora and Catra. “How about Candyland?”

Mermista groaned dramatically. “ _ Candyland _ ? Isn’t that for, like, the  _ 5 and under  _ crowd?”

Glimmer jumped to Bow’s defense, “No, Bow’s right, let’s start with something low-key. It’s just to start us off. Sea Hawk, you said you’d do the music, right?”

“Right you are!” Sea Hawk beamed, tapping away at his phone to connect to the swanky bluetooth speakers that  _ of course  _ the golden trio had scattered around the house. 

EDM music blasted from a nearby speaker, causing Perfuma to shriek and cover her ears, and Glimmer to swear loudly. 

“Sorry, sorry! Not the one I was looking for… ah, here we are.” 

Some kind of early 2000s soft rock started playing. Was this…  _ The Fray?  _ Catra narrowed her eyes at Sea Hawk. Just how old was this guy anyway? 

Glimmer and Perfuma were setting up the Candyland board. They dumped out the pile of character cards and everyone leaned in to snatch their favorite. Adora and Catra both reached for Queen Frostine, but Adora’s hand got there a second sooner. Catra’s hand bumped into Adora’s and she drew it back quickly at the resulting jolt.  _ Wtf.  _ Adora held up Queen Frostine triumphantly and stuck her tongue out, eyes crossed, at Catra. Catra growled and suppressed the intense urge to hit the back of Adora’s head and make her eyes  _ stick that way.  _ She reached forward and grabbed the only remaining character card.  _ Fuckin’ Jolly,  _ of course. 

“Stupid depressed gumdrop,” Catra muttered to herself. 

Adora snorted from across the table. Catra looked up quickly. Adora wasn’t looking at her, but her lips quirked up in a tiny smile that Catra felt herself mirroring.  _ Okay…  _

Their brief truce proved itself both flimsy and unsustainable. Somehow Catra found herself accusing Adora of stacking the deck of movement cards. Adora was obviously incensed and forced to defend herself, which hadn’t been Catra’s goal at all, obviously (it totally was.) The resulting squabble ended with Adora banging her elbow down,  _ hard, _ on the edge of the gameboard, causing it to flip dramatically and whack Bow in the face. 

“Uh, my bad, Bow,” she winced. 

Bow looked tired. “How about we try... something else,” he suggested, rubbing a blooming bruise on his cheek. 

_ Damn,  _ Adora was strong. Catra was impressed. She subtly cut her eyes to the side, checking out Adora’s biceps. She felt irrationally annoyed at how defined they were. 

Sea Hawk called dibs on picking the next game, which ended up being Twister. He eyeballed Mermista from across the room, baldly announcing his ulterior motive. Scorpia and Perfuma put themselves on spinner duty. Perfuma plopped herself gracefully down on Scorpia’s lap, clutching the spinner and giggling as Scorpia whispered something in her ear. 

Bow coughed awkwardly. 

“Oops!” Perfuma giggled, “um, Glimmer, left foot on blue!” 

Somehow no one had stopped to think how having six grown adults play on a single Twister mat might create some overcrowding issues. It did. By the time Catra had her first turn, she found herself having to cram her way into the entangled thicket of Bow, Glimmer, and Mermista’s legs and arms, ending up in a sort of crab-walk position. Sea Hawk joining nearly keeled them over. 

“Adora! Right hand on yellow!” Perfuma called.

Adora squatted, eyeing the sagging, sweating pile of her friends. Gingerly, she wriggled her arm through to the center row and placed her right hand on a yellow circle, weaving her body and head inwards to follow. Unfortunately for Catra, this brought Adora’s face up close and personal with her own (right-hand-blue). Blue eyes met mis-matched ones. Catra could see a bead of sweat on Adora’s brow, could smell a hint of cheese on her lips from all the mac ‘n cheese bites Adora had scarfed earlier. She blinked heavily, feeling her stomach bottom out. A split second later her hand followed, literally giving out and sending Catra crashing to the ground. Her fall sent Glimmer tumbling down, and Glimmer brought down Bow, who had been stretched over Sea Hawk, who collapsed down too. Somehow only Adora remained upright.

“Uh,” she said, “Guess I won?” Catra scowled and subtly knocked into Adora’s hand, sending her crashing down too. 

After that, they broke out the alcohol. 

“Pandemic!” Glimmer announced, a little desperately. “Everyone’s played before, right?” 

“Glim, it’s a four person game,” Bow said, pouring himself a hefty shot. He passed the bottle to Glimmer, who sighed deeply and chugged straight from the bottle.

“I’m out,” Mermista drawled, pouring a shot in the corner of the room. 

Sea Hawk quickly seconded this, making a beeline over to her. Catra could hear him exclaiming sweet nothings as he approached, but he was quickly cut off by Mermista’s tongue down his throat.  _ Well.  _ That… fit, somehow. She nursed her drink, continuing to observe the room.

Perfuma and Scorpia were cuddling on the couch, whispering in each other’s ears.

“Scorpia and I are going to go stargaze for a little while!” Perfuma announced, threading her fingers through Scorpia’s. 

Scorpia blushed, looking dopey, but still carefully checked the room for Catra and waited for her nod of assent before heading outside. 

“Well, okay, us four can still play, right?” Glimmer pleaded. 

“Sure!” Bow agreed, clearly trying to rally. He pulled over a card table and Catra stood to help him drag over four chairs. Being rude to  _ Adora  _ was one thing (and a pretty fun thing at that) but she didn’t actually have anything against the rest of them. 

“Okay… okay. Let’s do this.” Glimmer’s brow was furrowed, and her forehead shone with beads of sweat. 

Catra had to admit, she was impressed (albeit bemused) at the effort they were all going to in order to force this Catra-Adora friendship to happen. Was it all just to maintain their group harmony? Or did they actually like Catra and want her to stay involved in their little group? Silently, while Catra and Adora made faces at each other and tried to kick each other under the table. Bow and Glimmer worked to set up the game board. They all drew for roles. Catra got dispatcher, Glimmer got contingency planner, Bow got operations expert, and Adora drew the medic card. Upon seeing Catra’s card, Adora swore and sent another un-subtle kick her way, hitting a leg of the small table they were sat at and causing the gameboard to shudder. 

“ _ A-dor-a!”  _ Glimmer glared menacingly at her. 

Adora cringed under her gaze. “Sorry!” she exclaimed, cutting her eyes towards Catra.

In revenge, Catra-the-dispatcher point-blank refused to dispatch Adora-the-medic. As turn after turn passed and Catra pointedly ignored Adora’s pleas, and Bow and Glimmer’s un-subtle hints, Adora got visibly more frustrated. Surprising, it was Bow who broke first, as they lost yet another continent to disease. 

“Ughhh,” he groaned loudly, “I gotta take a break.” 

He walked away from the table and towards the tequila, shaking his head morosely. Glimmer blew air out of the corner of her mouth, shaking her head harshly. She pushed back from the table, her chair scraping the ground loudly. At the sound of it, Mermista wrenched her lips away from Sea Hawk’s, looking around in confusion. When she saw that it was another Catra-Adora issue, she rolled her eyes and resumed her lip-lock. 

Glimmer paced back and forth, once, twice. “Ugh! Can’t you two just  _ try  _ to get along?!” Glimmer fumed. She reached into the game duffel and threw a card copy of Oregon Trail at them, not gently. “Just go… sit over there… and play this! Until you can get along!”

Adora looked abashed. She waited a beat. Catra sipped her second (third?) drink. 

“So, uh…” Adora swallowed, “did you wanna try to play this?”

Catra sighed dramatically. “Oregon Trail? Doesn’t that always end with dysentery or drowning or y’know, tipped over wagons and dead donkeys?”

Adora snorted, a sound that had  _ no right  _ to be as cute as it was. “Yeah, dysentery and dead donkeys. Sounds about right. So do you wanna play, or?”

Catra paused, eyes rolling down Adora’s face and settling on the rosy flush coloring her cheeks (from the alcohol?), the blue of her eyes. “Sure. Scorpia kinda ditched me anyway, so…” 

Adora smiled (why did that make Catra’s stomach flip, just a little bit?) and started shuffling the deck.

“Let’s do it!” she smirked.

Of course, Catra’s first draw was to ford a river, and of course her oxen sank and her wagon sank and her character died. She glowered at the deck of cards, taking a deep drink. They started again and made it about three moves in before  _ Adora  _ had to ford a river and, with their luck (and only 2 players) her character drowned too. 

“Ugh!” Catra growled. 

Adora cracked up. “You were right, this game is all death and doom!” She lowered her voice and dragged out the word doom, pulling a laugh out of Catra. 

Catra blinked. Could she be… actually having fun? With Adora? Queen of obnoxiously cut arms, dad jokes, soft blonde hair and even softer looking lip — . Whoa. What was that. She was not having fun. She was having a miserable time! This was torture! Hanging out with Adora could go nowhere good, that she felt deep in her gut. 

She suppressed an extremely tempting urge to scatter the cards, instead throwing back her drink and slamming it onto the table. Some of it splattered onto the cards, which gave Catra about .5 seconds of satisfaction before  —

“Catra!” Adora moaned, “These are  _ Glimmer’s cards.  _ She likes to keep them in good condition!”

Catra rolled her eyes aggressively.  _ Screw this night. _

“Whatever, Adora. God, I hope  _ you  _ get dysentery,” she hissed, standing up abruptly. 

She stormed back towards Adora’s room, grabbing her jacket and bag and banging out the front door.

Catra power walked back towards her dorm room. About halfway there, she slowed down and finally absorbed her final words from the evening.  _ I hope you get dysentery?  _ Jesus Christ, what was  _ wrong  _ with her?  _ Why do I  _ get _ this way around Adora?  _ The sinking feeling in her stomach told her why, but Catra took the feeling and squashed it into a mental closet, slamming it closed and chain-locking it. Tonight was  _ not  _ her night. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> big big shout out to my gf, on here @shadocoon, for beta-ing my fics and helping me when i'm stuck! if you like fire emblem she's writing an edeleth fic called Stuck On You that i highly recommend!
> 
> thank you again for reading!! please leave a comment if you're feeling it, i love to read them they really encourage me! <33 hopefully another chapter up soon-ish!


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